74 national geographic • june 2016
occurred on this road. Security is high, with reg-
ular roadblocks. I study the endless stream of
trucks that pass them, piled high with onions,
melons, caged chickens, and bales of wool. Any
of these vehicles could have concealed Shesep-
amuntayesher’s coffin.
Once Shesepamuntayesher reaches Dubai,
her trail finally grows clearer. On the basis of
emails, customs declarations, and shipping
manifests, prosecutors and federal investi-
gators allege that three men were involved in
sending her from Dubai to the United States:
Mousa Khouli, a Syrian-born antiquities dealer
based in New York City; Salem Alshdaifat, a Jor-
danian citizen based in Michigan; and Ayman
Ramadan, a Jordanian based in Dubai. (Khou-
li eventually pleaded guilty to smuggling and
making false statements to a federal agent and
was sentenced to six months’ home confine-
ment. Alshdaifat pleaded guilty to a false official
writing misdemeanor and was fined a thousand
dollars. Ramadan remains a fugitive.)
Documents produced in litigation show
that Alshdaifat sent snapshots of Shesep-
amuntayesher’s coffin set to Khouli, and Ra-
madan and other parties eventually shipped
the pieces—with misleading descriptions of the
contents and value—to Khouli and a coin deal-
er in Connecticut. Khouli then used the same
snapshots to resell the sarcophagi to a collector
in Virginia. Investigators with U.S. Immigration
and Customs Enforcement (ICE) allege that
Ayman Ramadan handled antiquities looted
from Syria, Jordan, and Libya. And emails be-
tween Alshdaifat and potential customers sug-
gest his direct knowledge of looting in Egypt.
Brenton Easter, an ICE special agent who
investigated the Shesepamuntayesher case,
observes that international looting networks
collaborate with each other far more success-
fully than law enforcement officials do with one
another. He points out that the container that
brought Shesepamuntayesher’s outer sarcoph-
agus to the U.S. was shipped by Amal Star An-
tiques, a Dubai company. According to Easter,
Amal Star is owned by Noor Sham, of the Sham
family of antiquities dealers based in Mumbai,
India. Investigative journalist Peter Watson,
in his book Sotheby’s: The Inside Story, alleged
that members of the Sham family ran a major
looting and smuggling operation that brought
temple sculptures from India into the U.K. in
the 1990s, sometimes via Dubai, and consigned
several prominent pieces for sale with Sotheby’s
in London.
“I don’t always know the good guys around
the world, the other law enforcers in different
countries,” says Easter, surveying a world map
pinned to his cube in the Department of Home-
land Security’s headquarters in New York. “But
the bad guys all seem to know each other. It’s
like they’re on speed dial.” He says that a coop-
erator from the Middle East recently said that
smugglers and dealers in the region are follow-
ing his work carefully. He nods sharply, pursing
his lips. “Guess that means I’ve got their atten-
tion. Good. Now I know I’m doing my job.”
Unlike other illicit goods such as drugs or
arms, looted antiquities start dirty but end clean
(at least in appearance), their illegal origins be-
ing laundered as they pass through trafficking
networks. Without a detailed provenance—a
documented chain of ownership—it’s impos-
sible to know whether an object is fair or foul.
Yet even many items that are collected legally
lack a solid provenance, creating a dilemma that
collectors, dealers, and museum curators face
with every potential purchase.
Mousa Khouli sold Shesepamuntayesher to
a pharmaceutical entrepreneur and antiqui-
ties collector named Joseph Lewis, who lives
in Virginia. Lewis was indicted with Khouli and
the others in May 2011 on charges that included
conspiracy to smuggle and conspiracy to laun-
der money. After nearly three years of intense
litigation, he received a deferred prosecution
agreement and the eventual dismissal of all
charges. Lewis denies all wrongdoing, saying
that he purchased the objects in the U.S. from a
dealer who handled their importation.
If there is a collecting gene, Joe Lewis has
it. His mother collected vinegar cruets, model